Craven
by 18204
Summary: You are truly a product of our era, the dawn of the machines.


**AN: I wanted to get inside Infinite's head from the moment I saw him in** _ **Forces.**_ **Strangely enough, he didn't interest me at all before the game came out.** _ **Forces**_ **made me realize that there are a lot of underdeveloped aspects of his character that really should have been given proper attention. While I highly doubt that this fraction of a story does any of Infinite's more interesting traits justice, I do believe that it takes him a little further than Forces did.**

 **Emphasis on** _ **little.**_

Craven

Truly a sight to behold, he wants to say.

He clenches his fists as he mutely floats above the destroyed city. Everything has gone exactly as he and the Doctor planned: thousands have been captured or killed, countless blocks of the once-thriving urban landscape have been reduced to smoldering rubble, and the feeble efforts of the ragtag "resistance" were instantly crushed. With Sonic the Hedgehog permanently out of the picture and his cowardly friends forced into hiding, the world has practically crumbled at his feet. He ought to be proud of how far he's come in such a short time.

But in spite of it all, he can't shake the feeling that something is missing. The picture that he's been holding in his mind for seemingly his entire life remains unfinished. How can this be, he wonders, when everything he's always wanted has fallen right into his lap?

The terrified screams of the fleeing civilians offer him nothing but a transient sense of satisfaction. Puzzled, he struggles to revel in the chaos before him; yet his efforts do nothing to prolong the waning smile behind his mask.

Why? He wants to ask the thrumming gem embedded in his chest. Why, if he can sense the Phantom Ruby's power pulsing in his veins like blood, does he still feel incomplete? Isn't this—the world's certain end—exactly what he's longed to bring about for as long as he can remember? Isn't he now the most powerful being in the universe—no—all of existence? Hasn't he achieved his dreams and then some? If so, then why does he feel so—

 _Weak? No!_ The mere thought of the word makes him sick to his stomach. That isn't who he is. No. _That_ word will never describe him ever again. The Phantom Ruby has taken him far beyond that. Rather than weakness, this empty, hollow feeling is like...

Well, it's exactly that. Emptiness.

But how? How can there be any trace of emptiness inside him when he's incinerated his pathetic past self and risen from the ashes as Infinite? Is this not what he's always wanted? There's no doubt about that! He's immensely pleased with what he has accomplished in only a few months. There has to be some other reason, an explanation other than weakness. It isn't his fault. It can't be his fault.

 _Then whose fault is it...?_

While he can't come up with anything at the moment, he does realize that these few minutes of rumination have made him eager to pick up where he left off. There is still much of the world to conquer and obliterate. Perhaps if he returns to the center of the ring, the strange feeling—or absence of feeling—will abandon him. Maybe he just hasn't gone far enough. Maybe he needs to do more, destroy more, ruin more lives, see more tear-streaked faces, enjoy more cries of agony and sorrow—maybe then he'll finally be free of such troublesome sensations.

He can't imagine anything else that would give him a reason to live.

Having cast aside his doubts—or so he thinks—he flies forward at a moderate pace, scanning the smoke-tinted streets below for survivors to kidnap and torture. Surely the suffering of others will bring a lasting smile to his hidden face.

It doesn't take him more than half a minute to locate his next group of victims. Not two hundred feet ahead, a family of turquoise rabbits scrambles from the wreckage of their home and fights their way into the middle of the near-impassable road, blindly seeking shelter. As he raises his hand to annihilate them, his hatred having erased all desire to prolong their meaningless lives in any way, an unwanted thought pierces his mind.

Where did he come from and why did he leave?

The electrifying surge that the Phantom Ruby drives through his chest provides him with a final answer to everything.

 _It doesn't matter._


End file.
